Category Archives: education

April 4, 2013 · 6:55 pm

A Journey Through Learning . . . TOS Review

Three of my boys have recently been helping me review a product from A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks. Most of our homeschooling friends know by now how much my children enjoy lapbooking, and will understand how happy we were to get the opportunity to try a lapbook study from
A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks!

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We were given three different lapbooks and one unit study in pdf form to choose from:

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letters

astronomy

earth

The one my children decided to complete was the Earth Lapbook, which is available here, in two different forms. You may purchase the printed version for $21.00, or you may get the pdf instant download version, for $13.00. The download version is my favorite, because then I can use it for multiple children (and I have four of them!), either at the same time, or as each child reaches the level of ability needed for your chosen lapbook.

The Earth lapbook comes as a 42 page download, and requires two file folders to put together. In this lapbook, your child will:

“Learn about the Earth, what the Earth is made of, the Earth’s crust, sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks, the Earth’s 4 spheres-lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere, how the Earth moves-the days and the seasons, parts of the Earth, landforms-continents, mountains, valleys, and plains, how mountains are formed, the atmosphere, the water cycle, ocean zones- photic, abyssal, disphotic, hadal, the ocean floor- continental margin, continental shelf, abyssal plain, ocean trenches, and volcanoes.”

This is our very first experience with A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks, and it has been wonderful discovering just how easy the creators of this company make it for children to create a very nice, educational keepsake! When I opened my pdf file for the Earth lapbook, I found everything we needed. There were print outs of each activity, along with a page of information to go along with each one. My children chose to have me read the information to them, and do the little booklets, etc . . . as we went along. One of the nicest things was the placement guide page, which was like a map showing us where each little booklet was to go. At the bottom of each activity print out was a mini placement guide showing just that one item.

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As you can see in the picture above, there is also a list of suggested books if you’d like to add one or two into your study. My children saw the list and reminded me that we own one of the books, A Magic School Bus book titled “Inside The Earth”, by Joanna Cole and illustrated by Bruce Degen. You can see “The Batman” reading it to “Mr. Loquacious” and “The Puzzler” below, as part of their study.

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You really need very little in the way of supplies to create your own lapbook. You will need your pdf file of whichever lapbook you have chosen, two or three file folders, scissors, pencil to write with, crayons or color pencils (for the most part, A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks are printed in color, with some graphics in black and white which will satisfy the child who wants to color), and they recommend either zip dry glue or Elmer’s Xtreme glue. I did not find either of those glues local to me, so I chose to use strong, double-sided tape, which I purchased at my local warehouse club. I think it was a worth while investment, even though it was a bulk package, because we do a lot of lapbooks.

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Here is “The Puzzler” working on one of his activities . . .

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. . . and here we have “The Batman” and “Mr. Loquacious” working on theirs.

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This is what my kitchen table looked like when they took a break to watch a couple of educational programs that they really enjoy. We chose to pre-cut everything, and each boy had his projects in a zip baggie with his name on it. This way, the cutting was done and out-of-the-way, and they could simply move on to learning and putting together!

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The whole idea is that the children will have a keepsake that they can learn from, and that it will be portable, and easy for them to look through it as often as they wish, so it made me very happy when they were done, that they all asked if they could keep them in their own bookcases, in their own rooms. Again, as my husband likes to say, “stealth learning”!

One of the things I like best about this company is that it was created by two home-schooling moms, and best friends. I very much enjoyed reading their story of how A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks came to be.

We have done several different lapbooks over the years, and have a lot of fun with them. I think that what originally drew me to lapbooking was how similar it is to scrapbooking, and I am an avid scrapbooker. My kids enjoy everything I do in my scrapbooking time, often asking me to show them what new pages I’ve done, so I knew they would love doing something that is kind of the same thing, but with little informational booklets, etc . . . as opposed to photographs. Well, I was right, they really do enjoy making them!

A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks has so many different topics to choose from, including Veggie Tales, the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, sports lapbooks, math, Spanish, history and geography, to name just a few. In addition, there are lapbooks to go along with some of your favorite curricula, such as Apologia and Jeannie Fulbright curricula. They even have state approved or charter school lapbooks, which might be helpful if you are home-schooling in a state with strict regulations.

A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks has expanded beyond lapbooks now, and they also offer copywork, unit studies, notebooking, folders, and templates.

A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks has a wealth of free information on their website, including several “how to” videos which will teach you everything you need to know about creating your lapbook! There are also several FREE lapbooks here for you to download and create with your children.

You will find a number of Express Lapbooks here, for only $1.00 each, and they also have $5.00 lapbooks of the month, such as the current choices for April, one about horses, the other about spring.

If you join their email newsletter, A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks will send you a FREE “Overview of the 17th Century” lapbook. I signed up for it, and plan to use a lot of their other lapbooks in the future!

Schoolhouse Review Crew Members reviewed this and other lapbooks or the unit study, please go take a look and see what they all thought, too!

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March 27, 2013 · 10:45 pm

Another Day In The Life . . .

Today, we did laundry. Yes, laundry can be part of a homeschooling day . . . I do want my kids to learn how to be part of maintaining our home and family. We also worked on some upcoming review products, a lapbook about the Earth (you all know how much the boys enjoy doing lapbooks!), “The Artist” worked on 3 lessons in his A+ TutorSoft math (and the other 4 grade levels we ordered with their 50% off discount which expires at the end of this month arrived today in the mail, yay). All four of the kids did a read aloud of part of an ebook we’re reviewing about Sacagawea, and in between, they watched a few educational programs. Right now, they are watching the last half hour of Disney’s Earth on DVD before they all go to bed.

Because we’ve had a stomach virus going through the house (“The Batman” got it first, and got hit the hardest Monday night a week ago), and “The Artist” is still suffering some of the effects slightly, we will be waiting until next Thursday to attempt resuming our weekly home school park day. I HOPE everyone is all better by then, the kids miss going, and I miss it, too, because I get to spend the time visiting with other moms!

So, tomorrow, we’ll finish the laundry I didn’t get to today, and work some more in our educational projects, and then some errands with my husband.

G’nite, all!

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March 15, 2013 · 7:03 pm

Essentials In Writing . . . Where Students Learn to Write T.O.S. Review

Recently, I had the chance to use and review a writing curriculum called Essentials in Writing with my younger children, who are chronologically almost 12 years old, but who, for varying reasons, have had some significant delays.

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Essentials In Writing was founded by Matthew Stephens. He was a middle school English teacher in the public school before he created the Essentials in Writing curriculum, and has taught at nearly every grade level.

Since my twins “Mr. Loquacious” and “The Puzzler” are just at the beginning stages of being able to focus on any formal academics, I chose the grade 1 curriculum, which is intended for aged 6 – 7.

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The grade 1 curriculum is $40.00, and includes the DVD lessons and a PDF file with all of the worksheets and answer keys, should you need them. There is an option to purchase a pre-printed workbook offered during the checkout process for $20.00. I chose to print the worksheets a few days at a time, rather than printing them all out at once.

From the website page about the grade one curriculum:

“In First Grade, your child will learn: how to use words to make complete sentences, basic grammar, capitalization and punctuation of sentences, compose a friendly letter and a paragraph, and other topics.”

The grade 1 curriculum covers the following basics of written communication:

•Review Letter Formation and Sounds
•Introduction to Complete Sentences
•Capitalization Rules: Beginning of sentences, names

•Punctuation Rules: period, question mark, & exclamation point

•Basic Grammar: Subject/Predicate, Nouns, Action Verbs

•Parts of a Personal Letter
•Writing a Personal Letter
•Parts of a Paragraph
•Writing a Paragraph
•Other Forms of Written Communication: Lists
•Introduction to Narrative and Descriptive Paragraphs

•Text Features of Poetry

You may view a sample lesson here by scrolling down to the bottom of the page.

“Mr. Loquacious” and “The Puzzler” were not very enthusiastic about trying this curriculum at all when we began. They said “Mr. Stephens talks to us like we’re little kids!”. The plain fact, though, is that they were learning things while watching the lessons that they had not learned when they WERE age 6 – 7! They did not come into our family until they were age 8, and were not yet at that time reading, let alone writing in sentences.

This curriculum is SUPER easy to use, especially for the home schooling mom who finds herself either too busy for, or not comfortable with planning out lessons. The student watches each lesson on the DVD, and then does the assignments related to that lesson (which you, the parent, have either printed from your PDF file, or purchased in the pre-printed workbook). Some of the lessons have just one assigned worksheet, while others have two or three, labeled by letter (lesson 8A, 8B, 8C, for example). So, depending on the particular lesson and the child/children involved, one lesson can take anywhere from one – three days. So far, the most assignments my children have had from one DVD lesson has been three. I generally let them watch the lesson and then do one worksheet on the same day, with the remaining pages done one per day until completed. Because of their developmental delays, it is definitely taking longer to do each lesson than it may take your child.

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“Mr. Loquacious”, “The Puzzler” & “The Batman, watching Mr. Stephens teach lesson number 10.

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. . . and now they are doing worksheet number 10 A.

“The Puzzler”, my perfectionist, gets exasperated whenever Mr. Stephens goes even slightly outside of the lines on the board when he is teaching the lessons, and even more so whenever he himself makes a mistake in spacing, or capitalization, etc . . . but he is getting more practice at doing these things than he was before we began using this curriculum.

“Mr. Loquacious” is my speed demon . . . he wants to skip ahead of the instructions and do things his own way. He is discovering, though, that when he slows down and listens, he remembers better how to form his written sentences. He also sees how much neater his printing is by slowing down and paying attention to the task at hand.

“The Batman” didn’t really need the beginning lessons, but I brought him in with the others once we got past beginning letter formation and into proper capitalization, spacing of words, and punctuation. All three boys (and I’m considering having their brother “The Artist” join us too) will benefit from everything we are getting to at this point, and continuing on with, especially when we get to the sections on writing letters and different types of paragraphs. We have good friends in Michigan where we used to live, as well as family members there and in other states. All of my boys would very much like to be able to write proper letters. Or, maybe it’s me who would like them to be able to do so, LOL!

What I really like about Essentials in Writing is how simple it is for us to use. All I have to do is print out the worksheets, put the DVD in, and we are good to go! Really, it could not be any easier. I also do think that Mr. Stephens is a good teacher, and he is good at giving the lessons in a basic, easy to understand manner. One of my boys, “The Puzzler”, functions much younger than his twin, and he is having no problem understanding the lessons while watching Mr. Stephens teach. As I said before, though, he doesn’t like it when Mr. Stephens’ writing is not perfectly lined up. 🙂 I like that the lessons are very short, and that the written work is broken up so that it can be spread over a few days before moving on to the next lesson. The lessons are apparently filmed within a classroom setting, because when Mr. Stephens asks questions, there is often a child’s voice giving an answer. My kids noticed that before I did.

I do feel the production values of the DVD lessons could be better. The video recording did not seem to have been professionally done in either my husband’s opinion, or my own. It sort of looks like it was done by a person holding a video camera, as opposed to even having the steadiness of a tripod. There is visible shakiness in spots, and we can at times see what looks like the shadow of the camera person reflected on the white board that Mr. Stephens is using as he teaches the lessons.

Over all, I can say that Essentials in Writing Grade 1 IS giving my children the basics of written grammar and communication, and we will continue to use it, at least through the end of this level, although I would like to see the company revisit the quality of the filming in future editions.

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Crew members reviewed this and other grade levels of Essentials in Writing . . . click below to find out what they thought!

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February 11, 2013 · 7:00 pm

A Day in the Life…

Today, we had brunch instead of breakfast, which thrilled my family to no end. I’m not big on cooking breakfast, LOL! however, my cousin, Kathy Kollar, owns a WONDERFUL B & B in Ashland Ohio called College House B&B, which you can learn more about by going to

http://www.collegehousebb.com

During her last visit here, she gave me a copy of her little B&B Cookbook, which she sells at the B&B. I used one of the recipes from it called Make Ahead Scrambled Eggs, which was a huge hit with my family. I also heated tortillas for those who wanted to make it into breakfast burritos, and toasted bagels and English muffins. I very much recommend College House B&B! It is family friendly, Kathy and her twin sons live there, and are homeschoolers. The rooms are luxurious and reasonable, and the food is awesome, Kathy is a WONDERFUL cook.

After brunch, my stepson did his math, using a product we are reviewing for the Schoolhouse Review Crew, then the twins and my eldest son did some worksheets in the writing program that we are reviewing. After that, all four kids and myself finished a chapter in e Spanish program we are evaluating, and then the twins did the pages in THEIR math program. Now, we’ve just finished reading a book as a read aloud that we are reviewing. Everyone has had a snack, and in a little while we will be playing a card game that teaches about money.

In between these activities, I’ve been doing laundry, and thawing out meat to cook for supper. We have leftovers of homemade au gratin potatoes, and leftovers of slowcooker rosemary/garlic potatoes and carrots to go with it, plus a salad.

All and all, I think it’s been a productive day!

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February 8, 2013 · 9:51 pm

Latest happenings…

I am LOVING New Mexico weather! I have friends from back in Michigan telling me how they got dumped on with snow today, like 8 – 10 inches worth, in the case of one family we are close to . . . While *I* was out running errand with no coat, rather, I was wearing an open sweatshirt hoodie, lol!

Other happenings . . . It is becoming so apparent that being a member of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew is a tremendous blessing. So far, each and every product I’ve been given to review has been perfect for at least one of our kids, and some work well with more than one of them. Be watching for a BUNCH of upcoming reviews, starting about two weeks from now.

My husband is now recovering from his second back surgery over a six week period, and is hoping to be back to work in the next few weeks. At least this time around, the incision appears to be closed up, and he got his stitches out yesterday, so he feels like it may have worked better this time. I hope so . . .

We have been enjoying getting to know the taste of foods that we’ve never had before, I have now had pizza with green chili peppers on it! And I liked it! 🙂

We’ve finally managed to connect up with the family who adopted the biological siblings of our two youngest children, so we will be trying to maintain contact via email, phone, snail mail, and hopefully Skype if they can get that going on their end. Our boys are excited at the prospect! 🙂

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January 24, 2013 · 5:05 pm

Changes…

I’m working on adding some structure back into our home education. Being totally unstructured has worked for a while, but not as well as we had hoped it would. It has allowed the boys to learn many things on their own, according to their interests, but they really, really like doing things like lapbooks and unit studies, so even though there are some naysayers who believe that using any curriculum or structured assignments is not “real” Unschooling, it’s what we’re going to do.

We’ve begun easing back in with some things that I will be reviewing for the schoolhouse review crew, for example, a Spanish program (which I too, am doing!), because with our move to NM, we feel Spanish is a good choice for foreign language.

I have my stepson working with a CD curriculum for math that is an upcoming review. Last year, when he was being diagnosed with several things, the psychologist did a number of educational tests as well, and although he was seen as quite high in just about everything else, he needs to get caught up in math.

My eldest, who is actually 20, is going to be working with the 3rd grade cursive Handwriting Without Tears curriculum. We had tried an earlier, printing version of it when he was very young, but he just couldn’t do it, due to his disabilities, but I think this version may be a good one for him. I’ll let you know how it went when I write the review! 🙂

I am pulling out the kindergarten and then the first grade Abeka phonics and numbers books for my twins. It is an excellent foundation in phonics, but when the twins first came to us they just couldn’t handle it. Now, though, they are asking to do it.

We will also be starting to build up a supply of educational games, and using them for a regularly scheduled family game night.

I have a gazillian things saved on my computer that over the years I’ve collected free from the Internet, worksheets, unit studies, coloring pages, all things the boys are now asking to do, so I plan over the next week or so to go through and see what I have and kind of rough out a plan.

For each subject, unit study, or whatever the item is, I’m (for now) making a file folder to keep it in as they do it, so I have a running record of what they are doing.

We’re Just going to kind of ease into this for now, as we’re also dealing with a husband/father recovering from two spinal surgeries within the past six weeks, and still settling into living here, but I think this will be a good decision in the long run.

Do be watching, because over the next few months I will have several reviews here for a number of different educational products, plus I’ve just been given three single products to review for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine website. I’m very excited and blessed to have this opportunity, and to be given the products at no cost to me, to use and review. It will certainly help us with homeschooling on a very tight budget! 🙂

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January 4, 2013 · 10:58 pm

A Fresh Start in the New Year…

As we begin the new year, I want to get a fresh start to the home education in our family. Flexibility is very important to us, for a variety of reasons. We like to be able to pick up and head out to the park if it’s a nice day, so it’s nice to not feel wedded to a specific, rigid structure in our home-schooling.

We use a relaxed/Unschooling/Charlotte Mason method of home education, or what I’ve occasionally heard called the “wing-it” method. 🙂

Now that I’m a member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew, being flexible is also helpful when it comes to being able to add new things into our educational program when they become available to us. For example, we’ll soon be adding in a beginning Spanish program, which makes us very happy, because we’ve recently moved from MI to NM, and feel that learning the Spanish language would be a good thing in our new life.

As part of our fresh start, we will be getting into the History of Classical Music from Beautiful Feet Books. We bought this shortly before finding out we would be moving, so until now, had done nothing more than check to see that all the components were in the box before taping it back up for the movers. 🙂 This program, along with the Early American History package that we also have from Beautiful Feet, are put together from a Christian viewpoint, which I prefer. We’ve been slowly working our way through the history package over a few years. I also have the guide for Teaching Character through Literature from Beautiful Feet, and several of the books.

We’ll be adding in a math CD program for one of my kids who is very behind in math, to see how it works for him.

My kids love, love, love doing lapbooks, and there are tons of them online, free to download and print out.

For Bible, we are going to use the guide for reading the Bible in a year that our church is giving us.

Several years ago, I received via a grant program online, a huge set of prints of American art. I intend to use them for Art Appreciation with a Charlotte Mason style slant.

other thing I’m looking forward to is getting involved with our church’s home-school group. The home school moms in our church will be having a meeting this coming Tuesday evening to brainstorm activity ideas for the rest of the school year. This is important to me because I want my kids more involved with kids from church.

I also want to look for opportunities for my kids to become involved in service to the Lord, which I think is even more important than academics. More than anything at all, I want them to love the Lord and want to serve Him in whatever way he calls them to serve, not to mention the fact that the more involved one is in service to the Lord, the less opportunities one has to fall for sinful temptations.

Now that I have my NM driver’s license, I can get a library card. Once I do that, we can take advantage of some of the free enrichment classes they offer, not to mention the fact that really, one can home-school with a Bible and a library card.

We want to add walking into our program, beginning with walking the length of our block while my husband is recovering from spinal surgery, building from that, to walking around the block, to eventually long walks throughout our neighborhood.

I will be rebuilding our supply of board games, concentrating on educational games, and instituting a family game night once a week. We have Yahtzee, which we will begin with, as it will help with math and strategy.

We’ve been here in NM for five months now, and finally feel like we’re home, and ready for this fresh start. I’m excited to see what this new year brings to us!

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December 17, 2012 · 10:38 pm

Stressful Park Day, With a Surprising Conclusion…

So…My children and I have attended regular park days on Mondays since a couple of weeks after moving to New Mexico, with an unschooling group. It was made very clear in the description of the group that “pushing a religious agenda” was not allowed, so we have carefully not done so, rather choosing to simply do our best to live our faith and testimony, and talk about it only if a door is opened. At the same time, I’ve tried very hard to respect different views, whether they be political or religious, by not mocking them. I believe strongly that healthy debate is a good thing, especially here in the USA, but it truly bothers me when those who are adamant about non violent behavior seem to believe there is an exemption for those who choose to be verbally violent (at least in my opinion) in the way they mock someone else’s faith. To quote, for example “I can’t believe that 82% of people in this country are so stupid as to still believe in the rapture”. I believe in it, and at that point, I chose to say so. I was also told (by someone who was being very angrily sarcastic) that it was not Christian to disagree with mandated government-funded health care. It did, in fact, get to the point where I raised my voice right back, although I did subsequently apologize for that. I do NOT believe it’s un-Christian to disagree with forced government-run health care, or even government mandating that everyone MUST purchase health insurance, or be made to pay a fine for not doing so. I think if someone can afford to buy it, but chooses not to do so, then they should not be able to ask the taxpayers to cover their costs if they need medical care. I do wish everyone had access to whatever healthcare they needed, but I believe that the government is inefficient, at best when it comes to running any sort of aid. All that said, again, I believe healthy debate is a good thing. I grew up on it. My parents encouraged it, and we had very lively discussions around the dinner table and elsewhere. I also believe, however, that when one must resort to treating someone like an idiot because of their deeply held faith, they’ve lost the argument,whether they want to accept that or not. I believe that twisting what the Bible says in order to say another person is not acting in a Christian way is not a strong argument, either. I got to the point where I basically threw up my hands and said “whatever…”, and was about to pack up my kids and leave, and probably not come back. I have NEVER done to anyone in this group what was done to me today, no matter how strongly I disagreed with them. I’ve never rolled my eyes when someone refers to the “goddess” as in “if the goddess had wanted me to do (whatever it was) she would have given me (something, I don’t recall what that was)”. I’ve debated, as kindly as I could, the issue of abortion, Obama care, etc, as calmly and carefully as I could. In return, I’ve been yelled at for asking about whether it was the law here to only use call phones hands free while driving, yelled at when I said I hadn’t gotten used to not having to save pop bottles to return for deposit (yelled at that I should be saving them for recycling), and now verbally mocked for my Christian faith, and yelled at because of my deeply held views, both faith wise and political views. This came close to being our final park day, which made me sad, because I’ve come a lot of times because my kids love going, and have friends there. It is one of the few places they have since we’ve been here where they can have an extended, weekly time of fun and play with kids who accept them in spite of all their differences (they are special needs children, with issues ranging from fetal alcohol syndrome, bipolar, ODD, OCD, etc). What changed my mind, you ask? Well, after things calmed a bit and someone got the subject changed, another mom who has only been coming for a few weeks came to me and very quietly told me she agreed with me, and asked me for information about my church. The Bible says we are to be the salt and the light in the world.

Matthew 5:13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is henceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Matthew 5:14 Ye are the light of the world, a city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Matthew 5:15 Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on on a candlestick, and giveth light unto all that are in the house. Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your father which is in heaven.
And for those who wondered why, if we’re under grace New Testament) the Old testament is relevent to our lives today:

Matthew 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law,, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. Matthew 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

I believe this means we are to influence others by our testimony, and living our faith. I do try very hard to show my faith and testimony in the way I live, the way I treat others, and in the ways I react to what others do to me. As a result, unbelievers have told me that they can see my faith, they can see that I do my best to treat others with a grace that appears to be what someone claiming to be a Christian should be doing. I hope that one day, when I stand before Him, the Lord will say to me “well done, thou good and faithful servant”. And I pray that the lady who came to me today will come visit this Sunday evening for our Christmas candle light service. I invited her, after she asked me several questions about our church, and about where it is. And I came to the conclusion that her doing so, even after the derisive, mocking way I was treated for daring to disagree, means God has me there for a reason, at least for this season in my life.

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December 13, 2012 · 10:26 pm

Schoolhouseteachers.com…Point, click, teach!

As a brand new member of The Schoolhouse Review Crew, I’ve been very excited this past two weeks to have been using materials from the Schoolhouse Teachers website, which is owned and operated by The Old Schoolhouse Magazine</

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This site is absolutely wonderful! There is just so very much there that you can use, at whatever level your children happen to be, from Pre-K/Elementary right on through High School. All four of my children have special needs, and we’ve found plenty to keep us busy for a LONG time.

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Dring our review period, we chose a two week literature lapbook based around the short story ” Christmas In The Barn”, by F. Arnstein. This lapbook unit was created by Kimm Bellotto, along with several other lapbooks just waiting to be dug into on Schoolhouse Teachers during the next year.

Christmas in the Barn is a charming little story about a boy named Johnny, who discovers that his parents, unbeknownst to each other, have each ordered a Christmas tree to be delivered. Johnny comes up with a clever idea of how to use the extra tree. My children enjoyed the story, and it was fun having part one available, but then having to wait until the next week for part two, although they didn’t think the wait was so fun at first, LOL! Each week there were five different activities for them to do. In part one, the activities covered the following concepts:

1. art (completing an illustration for the part of the story that talks about how Johnny wondered why there were two trees)
2. language (a small concept booklet in which they were to think of two different similes that described Johnny’s cat)
3. creative thinking ( making a divided book in which they listed three different ideas of things they might do if their parents bought an extra Christmas tree and gave it to them)
4. listing and predicting (a two door book, under one flap they listed all the items Johnny got from the cook, and under the other flap they wrote what they thought he might be going to do with the items)
5. Narration (they each made a small book in which they wrote a summary of part one.

Working on booklets for their lapbooks

Working on booklets for their lapbooks

This past Monday was the day part two came out on the website. I went ahead and printed everything out, however, I was at the hospital all of that day with my husband, who was having spinal surgery, so we didn’t actually work on part two until Tuesday. We read part two of the story before leaving to pick up my husband from the hospital, and worked on the activities after getting him home and settled. In part two, the remaining activities covered:

6. art (complete a picture of the Christmas tree by drawing Johnny decorating it for his animal friends)
7. thinking skills ( a four door booklet listing treats they might put on or under a tree for a duck, a monkey, a mouse and a seal)
8. creative writing (write an additional ending to the story telling what they think happened after the original story was finished)
9. narration (a three door booklet telling about three traditions our family has each Christmas)
10. creative thinking (a booklet about a new tradition they would add to our family celebration)

My boys very much enjoyed making their lapbooks, and are asking for more. I was very happy to be able to tell them there are several more on Schoolhouse Teachers just waiting for us to dig into after the holidays!

The finished product!

The finished product!

We also played with some of the daily games, which you’ll find under the dailies link, and one of the “this Day in History activities, which is at the same link.

my twins, playing the consonant vowel consonant word game

my twins, playing the consonant vowel consonant word game

I enjoyed the ease of downloading this month’s free E-Book, Homeschool Dialogs to my ipad for accessibility anytime and anywhere I would have time to read it. It’s a good read, filled with conversations with some of the most respected leaders in homeschooling. Here are just a few of the people interviewed in this book: John Taylor Gatto, Lisa Whelchel, “Little Bear” Wheeler, and many more.

Reading my free e-book!

Reading my free e-book!

The e-books can also be downloaded to a kindle or your computer.

There is a group of teachers on the site for a wealth of weekly and monthly lessons:

Geography: Terri Johnson of Knowledge Quest
History: Diana Waring of Diana Waring Presents
Home Economics: Malia Russell of Homemaking911.com
Technology: lesson plans on Google Earth from Andy Harris

and many more, including subjects such as filmmaking, High School Math, Economics, Chemistry, and Helps for Struggling Readers. All of this and more is available at Schoolhouse Teachers

In addition to all of this, there are also available each and every yearly planner put out by The Old Shoolhouse Magazine, Monthly bonus e-books, Supplemental back issues of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, video recordings of several Schoolhouse EXPO’s,a monthly menu list of recipes contributed by other homeschoolers just like us, and oh, so much more!

You can join Schoolhouse Teachers with a one month trial for just $1.00. After that, it’s just $5.95 per month for “ready to go, unlimited classes and lesson plans made convenient for your family’s homeschool day”, which I feel is very affordable, and well worth the price.

I know my children and I will be able to use so much of what is on Schoolhouse Teachers!

I received a free one year membership to Schoolhouse Teachers through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

To read what others thought of this product, please go to http://schoolhousereviewcrew.com/schoolhouseteachersreview/

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November 15, 2012 · 6:59 pm

A New Journey… in Hope of Becoming a Member of The Schoolhouse Review Crew!

This week, I have been reading the November issue of The Home School Magazine, which you can read, for free, at http://www.TOSMagazine.com, or with the free App, found at http://www.TOSApps.com.

I have been a longtime subscriber to this magazine, even before it went totally digital, and at first, I was very disappointed at no longer getting to read it as a print magazine. Although I do still prefer to read magazines in print form, I have come to enjoy the digital edition of this magazine, since I’ve learned how to navigate my way through the issues! 🙂

With 156 pages packed with information, the November issue has a lot to offer, whatever your preferred style of home education. As a very eclectic homeschooling family (we use lapbooking, Charlotte Mason style, unit study and unschooling), I always find articles of worth to my family. In this particular issue, one that really spoke to me right off the bat was the Editorial “It’s Time To Wake Up!”, by Deborah Wueler, Senior Editor, on page 14. I have actually had a very stressful several months, and have been feeling pretty much exactly as the author describes in her editorial. She talks about going through a season when we may feel “the enemy has had the upper hand in the boxing ring and we are down for the count”, which is where I’ve been for a while now. However, the reminder is there, in Deborah’s editorial, that the Lord is still right there, and He defeats the enemy, that He saved me, and continues to be there, if I just will let Him. Just reading this editorial has of course, not solved all of my problems, but it has reminded me that I don’t have to go it alone.

Another article that I thought particularly good for my own family was “Crunching Through The Cracker Crumbs” by Mary West, page 126. This article reminds me why I have in the past, used a list every time I need to clean, but also shows me that I don’t have to do exactly as this author, either. I have four boys, age 11 – 19, and they can help me, too. I do think it will be beneficial to all of us though, to write-up a simple chore list similar to the one in this article, showing what each person does, and when. I think it will make a difference in a lot of ways, and I’m glad I read this article.

There is a Special Feature section on the Amish people in this month’s issue. This section would be wonderful for the family who uses unit studies, or even if you don’t, I recommend it as perhaps an interesting unit study to use as a break from your normal educational routine. With articles such as “Just Plain Interesting: Springboards for Research on the Amish” by Karen Robuck, which gives a lot of information as a standalone article, it also provides a list of books about the Amish, websites about the Amish, and a nice list of unit study activities and questions for all students, from young right on up to and including teens and adults. In the same section, you will find “The Amish: Simplicity and Satisfaction Personified”, by Shannon Swanson. She has written a very informative article that gives just a taste of what a to a Lancaster County working farm might find as part of their time there. She will tell you about the schools there, the food, and even has a recipe for Amish Funnel Cakes that you can make yourself! Follow that up with Liz Lane’s article, “A Day in the life of a Young Amish Mom”, a very interesting interview with Rachel, a mother of five children.I found this to be the most interesting interview! In a lot of ways, Rachel’s life is like that of any other mom, she shops at Costco, I shop at Sam’s Club. I was surprised by that! This article also has two recipes, “Rachel’s Breakfast Muffins”, and Rachel’s Country Brunch Casserole”. They sound yummy! Finish up your unit on the Amish by reading the wonderful short story written by Tricia Goyer called “On an Amish Farm”. This story tells us about a day with Ellie, a 13-year-old Amish girl from Kentucky who is visiting with her aunt and uncle in Berlin, Ohio. On this day, a school field trip of non-Amish children is coming to the farm, and Ellie doesn’t want to go spend the time with them, because three years previously she had been badly hurt by ugly comments made by “English” children about how different she was. During her day hiding away from the school children, Ellie meet Madison, one of the school children, who has also been hurt because of her differences…and well, you’ll have to read the story to discover what each girl learns! 🙂

There is a section about poetry, and why it’s an “extra” that should be put at the top of the list when deciding what to include in your home educational journey… and article by one of my favorite authors, Karen Andreola, called “Old Fashioned Courtesy”, and “365 Ways to Simplify Your Life”, an interview with Patrice Lewis who, with her family, changed their lives completely to live the simple life.

There are articles for the Charlotte Mason home-schooler, the struggling home-schooler, the unit study home-schooler, the classical home-schooler, and even for the veteran home-schooler. Interested in music? Andy Harris, The Tech Homeschooler, will tell you about several free tools for creating and enjoying music.

With Christmas fast approaching, you’ll want to read the section on educating with toys, which includes the articles “Toys That Teach-Playing to Learn” by Lindy Abbot, and “Play Your Way Through Learning”, by Jan May. Follow those up with the “Last Minute Gift Directory”, beginning on page 102, for quite a few great ideas!

There are so many good articles, so much good information in this magazine, it would be impossible to give you all of them in a blog post. I will say that one thing I appreciate about the digital format of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is that the advertisements are linked to the internet. No more marking up my magazine or keeping a pad and pen nearby to write down the websites for products I want to check out, I can just click on the ad and away I go, only to come right back to the page in the magazine I was reading before becoming interested in a product. And speaking of pages, there’s also no more of being in the midst of a great article and suddenly seeing (to finish this article, please go to page 86). All the articles are completely together, no flipping back and forth anymore.

I like Haptoon, by Mike Halpin. It’s a nice little cartoon with a good Biblical message. This month the cartoon is a reminder that while we choose our country’s leaders, God has chosen us, as believers, to be His ambassadors to a lost world. I like having this cartoon in the magazine, it’s a fun little reminder that we need.

The only drawback for me is that my family uses only the KJV Bible, if your family is like mine, you will want to have your Bible along side while you read, as not everyone uses the same version. That way, you can look up any scripture used in the Bible version used by your family.

Over all, I really enjoy The Old School House Magazine, and especially enjoyed this issue. If you are a home educator, I believe you will enjoy it as well.

To read about more home education products, please pop on over to the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog at http://SchoolhouseReviewCrew.com, where you will be able to browse through a plethora of reviews written by other homeschooling parents who have looked at, and used with their children, a wide variety of curricula, games, and just about anything that can be learned from! Enjoy…and do bring your coffee, tea or something else, because there’s so much on the SchoolhouseReviewCrew site, I think you’ll be there for a while!

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

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